Holly Wong

Instagram: hollywongart

Website: https://hollywongart.com/

Bio: Holly Wong (b. 1971, North Miami Beach FLA) creates fiber and drawing-based installations and assemblages that explore grief, mourning and resilience. She was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute where she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in New Genres. Holly has participated in over 80 exhibitions including group shows at the de Young Museum, the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Ogden Contemporary Arts, and Maui Arts & Cultural Center. A Presidential Scholar in the Arts, she has received grants from the California Arts Council (Established Artist category), the Puffin Foundation, the George Sugarman Foundation, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She is represented by SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland, CA, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, ELLIO Fine Art in Houston, TX, and is a member of A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Holly lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

Statement: "Thought Traveler" as an installation of drafting film fragments that I have sewn intensively with black thread on a sewing machine. The work serves as a metaphor for the tangled ways our brains process trauma and the ways in which we can approach wholeness by putting together the pieces both spiritually and physically. I started by taking long sections of the translucent white film and cutting into shapes similar to vines or dendrites. I then used the sewing machine to travel back and forth upon the surface, similar to a drawing line, embedding and deepening the rich thread, mirroring the process of mental rumination. I have affixed each fragment to the wall with small pins to build up a surface area or shape. They form a mass in the center of the work, similar to a spine. This work is a proxy for the body and it was deeply healing and meditative to re-build this body, similar to rebuilding my own life. My use of fiber materials in my work is a personal journey of connection and "Thought Traveler" is testament to that process.